Love at the first sight - Cruising for adults ("stolen") - Finally you get the goody normally only kids get somewhere - That is all I love Holland America Line for. And it might sound stupid: You can experience a wonderful cruise on a small ship like RYNDAM too.

Then we started to browse. It was like you came home after a long time. Then the very firs time 2008 (only in German - sorry - please use Google Translate). And it was love at the first sight. Then all "experts" said: how can you it? Only old people! Nothing scared off my decision to book and as said before: love at the first sight. And those "experts" went later also on Holland America. I pay more and I get much more. The ratio need to be set by every one individually. And I felt perfectly well on this ship. Other American cruisers said to us: "When we are gong with our kids we go with others. If we want to do something good to us we take Holland America: It is cruising for adults." And before I booked our very first cruise I had a brochure of Holland America in my hands. But then I had no idea how the cruise market worked and Holland America had a very lousy representative on the German market and explained how expensive they were without explaining what you get for your money. Especially I am more than happy that I always my own brain and decided to book and go with Holland America instead of listening to others who did not know Holland America by themselves but able to explain reasons against them.

Something I normally would NEVER do: to buy a pig in a poke, i.e. first rent and later having a look on the rentad object. But Holland America had a lot of credit with me. So we saw now the cabana we rented for the port days. We only did it because we decided already: no booked tours. We could arrive in peace and when everyone was off the ship we could also could go down and decide spontaneously and when we were not interested anymore to stay any longer ashore we could go at any time to our cabana.

Thereafter we went quickly to the spa. Here we checked their offers. And tested everything. For Bruno the gym was always part of the inspection. Wondering if they offered SM-play with electric power??? Or electric torture like with James Bond??? But I was told that it was very "harmless" and was only only good to stimulate your muscles. But there was need to stay in the mod I did not asked any more. But as we had the cabana and somehow the weather was too warm we did not buy the spa-pass.

One of my favorite places: Crow's Nest. A true fell-well oasis to have a forward view: literally. One reason I hate e.g. Norwegian who moved a lounge to the aft and add new cabins in the front like on NORWEGIAN STAR/NORWEGIAN DAWN. But here not all changes were improvements: no more Barista-coffee machine but a full-automated coffee machine. But I learned that they could secure the same quaility across the crew and with a manually operated Barista-machine the quality might vary. I need to say that those arguments were understandable. But honestly spoken I wished they would spend more money to train their crew... But honestly I need to say that this would apply more to Bruno as I mostly order "chilled coffee", ice tea and VitaminWater... Only the discounted beverage cards which were good for all beverages were not offered anymore.

I need to say that I not feel more safe than with Holland America. You could feel that they live safety and it was no annoying side duty. And they integrated the guests. Then on WESTERDAM the Safety Officer himself walked personally around and stood in front of a guest who was making a phone call during the life drill. He was rearing in front of him and stretched out his hand. The guest understood: he hang up and handed his cell phone over. I really would love to tape this scene... but nobody made a phone call and I had to count that my camera might be confiscated... and Bruno refused to step to the first row to make a phone call just to make me taping. It would not work anyway. They really took attention that tall men were in the back and small women were in the front. Looked as the organ pipes and to say it again: I did not dare to take picutres there.

Sigi has birthday on New Year's Eve. So I would buy her a small bottle. They did not neither a small bottle nor by glass the Louis Roederer Cristal 2005. So we will buy her some ice water! It is free of charge and for therapeutical reason better than champagne.

I loved it how they recorded all your special requests. I loved less the 6% local taxes as long as we had not leave the US-waters.

What I loved more: I loved the slice of "cold cut" which only kids get when you buy somthing with a butcher: in a different way like "Dim Sum" to remember you friendly that soon the 1st seating would start and you should join in the dinner feeling.

NIEUW AMSTERDAM and EURODAM were going like an "8" Western and Eastern Caribbean and met always for embarkation and debarkation in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I.e. NIEUW AMSTERDAM was doingt the itinerary which EURODAM would make the week later: Cozumel, Grand Cayman and something else I was not so much interested to see. But she docked so bad taht I had no chance to make any better pictures.

As now it was still time we had a look to the offer of the self-service restauarant. Looked very well too.

When we arrived with the main dining room we had a very big surprise. One waiter we knew from RYNDAM remembered us and greeted and welcomed us. We felt being home due to Irwinsyah. For the reason that he remembered us he got the "ungrateful" job that secure that everything was fine with us. During the voyage he always came by and asked if everything was fine and if there would be anything he could do for us. But there was not so much he could do for us: because we liked it, it was tasty, we received friendly and attentive service. And there were so many little details which made the difference, like the ginger when you left the restaurant.

We went to the show. I loved them but as frumpy as before they were not anymore: A little Vaudeville style... Wondering if they had more capacity in the cold chamber in case someone would dropped dead during the show... somehow it was not "well-behaved" anymore I remembered from previous cruises. But there were not so many old guests on board. Very mixed. Cruise Director gave a very good and masterful performance.

What was working well subject it worked anyhow: the internet. They changed the service provider. No more internet-manager onboard. I remember the good times when we had a Jacques onboard who set your iPad that it worked best...

Über mich / About me

lebt in einer glücklichen Partnerschaft... pendelt zuviel... einerseits zwischen seinem Arbeits- und Wohnort. Ansonsten auch mittlerweile zuviel in der Weltgeschichte.
lives in a happy partnership... commutes too much... between his home and his work... but also around the world.